Throughout Jean Rouch’s filmic career he experiments with cinema, pushing the boundaries of ethnographic film, showcasing a range of styles. Chronicle of a Summer embarks on the simple journey of asking strangers if they are happy in order to explore how camera’s change behavior. This film epitomizes Rouch’s exploration of cinematic truth, however, I am left questioning if it is the camera or Rouch who provokes his subjects into performance. Rouch’s exploratory career can be tracked through his two films, Les Maitres Fous and Moi, un Noir, released only 3 years apart but very different, displaying his adventurous, transformative filmic style. Compared to many other ethnographers, Rouch is not concerned with capturing the reality of the lives
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Some said the scenes were indecent and painful, some found them powerful, appreciating the intimacy that Rouch and Morin were able to elicit. Mary Lou explains that, “in order to get a sparkle of truth, the character has to be alone and on the verge of breaking down, he has to talk about a very intimate matter” (Chronicle of a Summer). This interpretation of hers leads me to believe that she felt this was a true depiction of herself as well as Marceline. Similarly, Marceline mentions, “These were very intimate, vivid memories, when I was saying the words, I was reliving the past, feeling it” (Chronicle of a Summer). Rouch puts his subjects in intimate settings in order to provoke a deeper truth. In the two most impactful scenes, with Mary Lou and Marceline, despite the fact that Rouch may have exacerbated their performance through his filmic style, using long takes and close-up shots, they were untouched, uninterrupted, able to speak as they pleased, so although it can be seen as performance, it is a performance they created. Morin explains this concept at the end of the film, explaining, “We wanted to get away from theater, from spectacle, to enter into direct contact with life. But life is also theater, life is also spectacle” (Chronicle of a Summer). Ultimately, both the camera and Rouch are facilitators in provoking performance, however, he reaches a deeper truth within his subjects. In the end, Rouch met his goal of exploring what film can achieve, revealing a transformation that prompts itself turning subjects into actors when placed in front of the lens of a
Some said the scenes were indecent and painful, some found them powerful, appreciating the intimacy that Rouch and Morin were able to elicit. Mary Lou explains that, “in order to get a sparkle of truth, the character has to be alone and on the verge of breaking down, he has to talk about a very intimate matter” (Chronicle of a Summer). This interpretation of hers leads me to believe that she felt this was a true depiction of herself as well as Marceline. Similarly, Marceline mentions, “These were very intimate, vivid memories, when I was saying the words, I was reliving the past, feeling it” (Chronicle of a Summer). Rouch puts his subjects in intimate settings in order to provoke a deeper truth. In the two most impactful scenes, with Mary Lou and Marceline, despite the fact that Rouch may have exacerbated their performance through his filmic style, using long takes and close-up shots, they were untouched, uninterrupted, able to speak as they pleased, so although it can be seen as performance, it is a performance they created. Morin explains this concept at the end of the film, explaining, “We wanted to get away from theater, from spectacle, to enter into direct contact with life. But life is also theater, life is also spectacle” (Chronicle of a Summer). Ultimately, both the camera and Rouch are facilitators in provoking performance, however, he reaches a deeper truth within his subjects. In the end, Rouch met his goal of exploring what film can achieve, revealing a transformation that prompts itself turning subjects into actors when placed in front of the lens of a